1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to ceramic materials.
2. Description of Related Art
The synthesis of materials with nanoscale dimensions is one of the most sought after technologies today, as particle size reduction has been postulated to lead to dramatic changes in physical properties. For example, typical ferromagnetic materials exhibit superparamagnetic behavior at particle sizes of 10-15 nm (Cao et al., “Controlling the particle size of amorphous iron nanoparticles,” J. Mater. Res., 10, 2952 (1995) (All referenced publications and patent documents are incorporated by reference.). One of the most pressing technology needs today is to find more efficient ways to store and process digital information. One of the possibilities to squeeze more data onto storage devices is by making the currently used magnetic nanoparticles even smaller. Similarly, nanosized superconductors could be used as an active component of novel nanocomposites with advanced useful properties and as principal building blocks of nanoelectronics as well as elements of solid-state quantum bits (qubits) (Schmidt, The Physics of Superconductors [Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1997]). There are currently very few processes available, which can reliably produce nanomagnetic, semiconducting, or superconducting materials of desired sizes under mild conditions.
Most transition metal-based polymers reported to date do not contain units for conversion to a thermoset and thus afford low char yields at elevated temperatures. Carboranylenesiloxanes are highly sought after high temperature, thermally and thermo-oxidatively stable polymers (Dvomic et al., High temperature Siloxane Elastomers; Huthig & Wepf: Heidelberg, Germany (1990)). These materials are desirable, especially when it comes to their thermo-oxidative stabilities at very high temperatures. The introduction of unsaturated cross-linkable units such as a diacetylene unit in such materials resulted in the production of extended polymer networks of carboranylenesiloxanes (Henderson et al., “Synthesis and Characterization of Poly(carborane-siloxane-acetylene),” Macromolecules, 27(6), 1660 (1994)).